It is easy to find and hike Wupatki National Monument, just north of Flagstaff, Arizona. The Sinagua people who occupied the site for 400 years were forced to evacuate in A.D. 1064 after the eruption of nearby Sunset Crater (a National Monument on the same side road). These ancestors of the Hopi returned when they discovered that the ash made the land more fertile, and rainfall had increased. This made farming so productive that archaeologists believe it was once among the more densely populated regions in northern Arizona. The pueblos you can now see were built after the eruption.

Why the Indians abandoned the area a second time, between 1215 and 1225, is unknown. The Hopi claim the ruin as the ancestral home of their Parrot Clan.

The national monument, which comprises almost 36,000 acres, contains at least 2500 prehistoric sites and seven significant pueblos. Five of those are open to the public: Wupatki, Wukoki, the Citadel, Nalakihu and Lomaki.

The largest is Wupatki, which is easily reached by following a short trail behind the visitor center. At its peak Wupatki was four stories tall with 100 rooms, and probably housed about 125 people. The trash area along the trail has yielded a treasure trove of finds for archeologists. Along the same trail are a ball court and ceremonial amphitheater. The ball court is particularly interesting, because is very similar in design to those found among the Aztecs and Mayans in Mexico and Central America.

The other ruins are on along a road that winds from the visitor center through the monument. All are reachable by short self-guided trails.